The Debt Free Roll Of Honour

black_taxi_2

very well done Kerry

I like how you averaged about 10k each year

slowly but surely

kerryallc71

we had a bit of ppi refund from NatWest the other year which helped as well and we increased payments every year to pay it off as quickly as we can , our original debt free date should of been November 2016 so we did well xx , its been so difficult but it feels like a huge weight has been lifted off our shoulders , but since 2010 we have been through a lot of upheavals , I almost died of pneumonia in feb 2013 due to carcinoid cancer which we didn't know about , then in October 2013 I had the cancer removed at Wythenshawe hospital in Manchester and in march 2014 my eldest son who who suffers with quite severe autism he suffered a subarachnoid haemorrhage and nearly died , he was first rushed to our local hospital Leighton hospital and then rushed to north staffs hospital , they coiled his haemorrhage but in less than 24 hrs later he had another bleed of his aneurysm and his brain swelled so they had to perform a craniotomy and remove part of his skull to release pressure so the swelling would go down , at the end of may 2014 they did a crainoplasty to put the skull back , he's not out of the woods yet and he goes every 6 months for angiograms which are not nice and the blood that leaked from his haemorrhage damaged his right eye and he has trouble with that as well , also his skull has moved so they will be performing more operations next year . but having us debt free now has released us of a lot of stress and worry and it will help us a lot xx

HomeAlone

Lightbulb moment: mid-2009

Debts at highest: £25000

Debt-Free Date: 10th Sept 2015

Pearl of wisdom: Get help! I was more than struggling in 2009. My marriage was going down the toilet, I was desperate to keep it together. When I finally went to a debt advice charity I was so desperate that I couldn't even open the envelopes of the bills and demands that were being received daily. Just talking to them helped. My wife refused to talk to them and that made life much more difficult, but we got her consent for the charity to talk to our creditors on both our behalfs. This forum helped a lot although I have only been a reader, never a poster.

12_month_challenge

Hi Home Alone and congratulations to you :beer:

Well done on becoming debt free. Any tips that helped you on your way will be greatly received

The_Only_Girl

Congratulations kerry, what a journey you've been through. To accomplish what you've just done amidst all those upheavals is a massive achievement and worthy of praise. Good luck on the staying debt free journey.

The_Only_Girl

Congratulations home alone.. Well done!

KONG

Lightbulb moment: mid-2010

Debts at highest: £15000

Debt-Free Date: 1st July 2015

Pearl of wisdom: Make a plan and stick with it! Know your income + outcome. Save the extra you have for hard times. The Sealed Pot Challenge + Virtuel Sealed Pot helped alot aswell. I started selling the things I did not use anymore and got a profit from that. Every 2nd week people put their stuff on the street for the garbage men to pick up, and if I saw something I could sell from that I took it up in my apartment and sold it on Ebay. Every little penny helps in the end.

I'm only 28 - But glad I joined this forum - helped me alot. Even if I am from Copenhagen, Denmark. :money::T:beer:

The_Only_Girl

Congratulations Kong! Enjoy your new found freedom from the shackles of debt!

supersavor

Well after entering my first dmp in 2008 i am not finally debt free from this month.

It has been a long hard slog but finally i have done it . First thing i would say is make sure you approach a debt charity to set up your plan because if i done that i would have been debt free over a year ago.

Thankfully i realised this one year into my plan and moved to Payplan who were terific by the way.
It sounds strange but i now dont know whag to do next .

My plan is to save that money i had been paying and build up a decent rainy day fund .

Though im delighted its all paid off part of me thinks i should have paid minimum amounts and saved it all up. Though if i did that it would always be hanging over me .

does anyone else feel the same way?

Melanie_Fleming

a. The date of your lightbulb moment - October 2005
b. Debts at their highest - £10,000
c. Debt-Free Date - 30th October 2006
d. Your one perl of wisdom. - Write down every transaction. That way you will know if you can 'treat yourself'


What I did in October 2000 was total exactly how much I owed and much to my suprise it was waaaay too much. What with moving into our house and spending god knows how much on decorating I would pay for it all on my credit card, but I would then dis-associate that when i wanted to treat myself. Saying to myself "well i havent treated myself so i'l buy this and that" - But just buying paint from B&Q meant I did use my credit card.

So once I got the loan I knew that if I !!!!!!ed it up this time there would be no turning back. When I got the loan it gave me the opportunity to budget properly but I was still £300 in debt.

November 2005 was the month when i was going to try and spend a maximum £100 a month. Despite a trip to Blackpool I managed to do it. Christmas came and went but in Jan, Feb and March I managed to teeter just over my £100 mark. But my balance always hovered around the £300 mark. By April I got it down to zero! but only for a few days because I had a camping trip which involved filming so I was then back to square one in the sense that I then owed once again, about £300.

Basically all year Iv been around this figure or just over. We didnt legislate for our TV license so I had to pay for that but thankfully, from Tommorow...29th October 2006. My mastercard will be zero. Of course im still paying the mortgage, of course im still paying the loan. But we can afford to pay our mortgage and I can now save some money. if I spend once again, about £100 during a month I can pay it off straight away and put £200 in my savings.

I feel in control again. But because of cutting back on petrol I feel fitter, iv lost weight, im less stressed out and i have more money.

As a cause for celebration, I subscribed to Sky Sports on Saturday and we'r having that for November and December.
Thanks